April 13, 2026 - NTSB Reports On BlueCruise Crashes

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for April 13, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

Ever since I first drove a Cadillac CT6 with GM's hands-free Super Cruise driver assist back in 2017, I've had a skeptical view of the concept. While hands-free, eyes-on systems from many manufacturers do reduce some traditional driver workloads, they have always introduced new cognitive workloads due to the need to supervise the technology. The better a system works at its intended tasks, the more difficult it becomes for humans to remain attentive enough to take over when something starts to go wrong.  GM was the first automaker to incorporate an infrared driver monitor system to track the driver's eye gaze and make sure they were watching the road while the system was in use, but these systems are not perfect. 

In early 2024, there were two fatal crashes involving Ford Mustang Mach-Es where the drivers were using the BlueCruise hands-free system. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated both crashes and recently published its findings, including a number of very important recommendations. First among those is that these partial automation systems should be integrated and have concurrent engagement with other safety systems, such as automatic emergency braking and active intelligent speed assistance. Both of these crashes involved collisions with stationary vehicles, something that has also been a major problem for Tesla vehicles over the past decade. In one of the crashes, the Mach-E was going over 74 mph in a 45 mph construction zone, and the driver was intoxicated. 

NTSB also recommended promoting driving engagement by design, which would require a fundamental rethink of these systems. The board also recommends that all these vehicles include telematics that notify the manufacturer in the event of a crash. Since virtually all modern vehicles have telematics, it's just a matter of making sure that a notification is actually sent. The board also recommends updating the regulations for event data recorders to capture additional information, including whether the system is available, whether it was in use, any driver alerts that were provided, and any faults detected for ADAS. Driver monitor systems should be upgraded to reduce the incidence of driver disengagement, including warnings based on accumulated short glances away from the road, differentiating real on-road glances from attention to objects such as phones that might be in the driver's line of sight, and providing intermittent alerts to minimize eyes off the road. 

The NTSB also repeated a recommendation from previous investigations that all new vehicles should have passive, integrated alcohol impairment detection systems or advanced driver monitoring to prevent or limit vehicle operation if the driver is impaired. 

Unfortunately, in an era where the administration in Washington is more interested in eliminating or ignoring regulations than creating new ones, none of this is likely to be implemented for at least the next several years. That means it's up to manufacturers to actually make these systems safer. 

Thanks for listening.